Musings from the basement...

Writing is like acting

February 28, 2012 0 Comments

Sometimes, two seemingly unrelated worlds have more in common than you realize. Consider the worlds of writing fiction and acting. To some extent, writing fiction is a lot like acting. When you’re writing fiction you’re also playing a role, or rather, many roles. Part of your job as a writer is to immerse yourself in these characters. To know them with a great degree of intimacy and, most importantly, to guide their actions in a way that feels natural and believable. You’re trying to convince your audience that these are real people facing real obstacles, not pawn’s in the author’s plot. So part of being good at writing convincing characters is the ability to be a good actor. You can’t just write yourself. You can’t…
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Writing

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Five years ago…

February 24, 2012 5 Comments

A Year of Hitchcock

Jim McDevitt, my friend and coauthor of A Year of Hitchcock, just sent me this email: Last night I stumbled across some old MySpace blogs I had written back in 2006-7. On Feb. 24, 2007, I noted that I had finished writing my part of A Year of Hitchcock. If I recall correctly, you finished your part a few days later. Hard to believe it’s been five years. Five years. It really is hard to believe. Things have felt like a whirlwind since. A Year of Hitchcock was my first published book, the culmination of a lifelong dream, and remains something I’m proud of. Others followed. Stuff Every Husband Should Know, the recent Barrens, Blimps & Barons, and contributing to Geek Wisdom, along with two…
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Alfred Hitchcock, Random Musings, Works by Eric, Writing

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Always thrilling when someone reads your work, but…

December 26, 2011 0 Comments

… nothing has been as personally gratifying as the response to my book on Lakehurst. I’ve written about legendary film directors, relationships, geek culture and more, but this is something special to me — and it’s made even more special by the fact that old friends, teachers, people I knew in my youth, their parents, and many others are getting it and are interested in it and are reading it. I’ve gotten random calls at home, emails from people I’ve never met, invitations to do presentations and interviews, requests to sign books for the holidays, and more. Considering I just sort of quietly slipped it out there at the last minute, no adverting or promotion outside this blog and Facebook, the positive response has been…
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Works by Eric, Writing

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A new record of ambiance for your sleeping pleasure

December 16, 2011 0 Comments

If you follow my music blog/archive you may have already seen this, but if not, here is an experiment in sleepy, late-night music I recorded a few months ago but have only just gotten around to tossing out there for people to hear. This album is guitar-free and vocal-free. It’s a sparse record of simple piano, canyon echo drums, cavern bass, and other sounds. Very slow. Methodical. Lots of empty space on this one. Put it on late at night and fall asleep, or early in the morning before you’re ready for music or talk radio. The tracks all flow into one another, so it presents itself as one long piece. (song titles are download links) Tape Theory Day of Turmoil, Night of Regret 1)…
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Music, Works by Eric

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